Tears for Fears' Curt Smith Reveals Why He Was at His 'Unhappiest' at the Height of the Band's Fame (Exclusive)

The singer and bassist opens up to PEOPLE about struggling during the band's peak in the 1980s

Back in the '80s, Tears for Fears was on top of the music world. But despite the huge commercial success of three straight albums, singer and bassist Curt Smith was rather miserable.

“At the height of our fame was the unhappiest I've ever been personally,” the musician tells PEOPLE. “I mean, the lack of personal life, the fact that we were so young and didn't really know how to say no, it was just not good for my mental health.”

At the time, Smith, 63, was in the midst of a divorce, and his relationship with bandmate Roland Orzabal was growing increasingly strained. Because of this and a myriad of other reasons, Smith left Tears for Fears in 1991 and “escaped” to New York City.

“I was just very unhappy. I think the wonderful thing about that is that it taught me never to equate the amount of money you make with happiness,” he says. “Most people aren't lucky enough to earn that kind of money and realize this doesn't make me happy.”

In New York, he met his wife of 28 years, Frances Pennington. Eventually, he and Orzabal patched things up, reunited and released two new albums, including The Tipping Point in 2022.

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On Friday, Oct. 25 the duo released Songs for a Nervous Planet, Tears for Fears’ first-ever live album. The 22-song collection includes four new tracks (Smith calls it a “hybrid album” or “an EP with 18 live bonus tracks”). Coinciding with the album drop, Tears for Fears is also releasing a concert film in theaters called Tears for Fears Live (A Tipping Point Film).

Filmed in the summer of 2023 at FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin, Tenn., Smith said he and Orzabal were so aware of the cameras that they were “uncomfortable.” Ironically, they played their best show of the tour.

“The performance was by far the best, and the reason was because we were slightly uncomfortable personally, so what we did to get over that was to concentrate on playing and singing,” he says, laughing. “When you are uncomfortable, but you're doing something else, you concentrate on whatever else it is you are doing to get over that feeling of being uncomfortable.”

Concert films have become very popular over the past few years; Taylor Swift's Eras Tour film in 2023 shattered box office records and became the highest-grossing concert film ever.

“I don't think we could ever dream of getting to that kind of level and nor would we want to,” Smith says. “We are not very good at the fame thing, as we've learned over the years. We'd rather be sort of quiet and anonymous and just make music, but doing the movie and the live show was great.”

In fact, the duo’s lives are “pretty dull,” which is how they like it.

“That is my dream, to not be recognized,” he says. “The problem about being recognized is you are recognized, and we like to kind of quietly go about our business and hopefully not get stopped on the street, which it's pretty great. I mean, we make a very good living out of what we do, yet I rarely get stopped.”

The duo, however, will be front and center — and performing songs from the new album — during a three-show stint at Las Vegas’ Fontainebleau from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2.

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“I think we are continually improving. Otherwise, we'd probably give up,” Smith says of the band’s position in modern music. “We're constantly in search of as near to perfection as we can get, and we haven't gone there yet. So the fact we haven't means we're continuing… We definitely feel like we're kind of on a bit of a roll right now.”

Despite breaking up for nine years during the ‘90s, Smith and Orzabal are as solid as ever, too.

“Both of us are getting along better than we probably have since we were in our early 20s. It's just one of those things that comes with age," he says. "I think you end up realizing that you can't do without your partner, and having a partner is a wonderful thing because if one of us doesn't want to do something, the other one can step forward and someone has your back all the time. We talk more than we have done for a long time. We discuss things and we plan together. We don't do anything without the other one, sort of, okay, and it's good.”

Songs for a Nervous Planet is out now, and the film will be available to see in theaters on Saturday, Oct. 26.

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